The Path of Life For All Humankind
Mrs. Hah Ja Han Moon
President, Women's Federation for World Peace
This address was given January through February, 1999, on her American speaking tour.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
I am deeply grateful that you have taken the time from your busy schedules to help me make today's gathering such a success. Our theme for today is "The Path of Life for All Humankind."
Today the world is lost in great confusion and cries out in agony. We face endless conflict as individuals, in our families, in our nations and in the world. As individuals, we are confronted with inner turmoil between our mind and body. Our families are plagued with the moral decadence of our young people and the breakdown of family-centered traditions. Historical rivalries lead to distrust and even war among our nations, fanning the embers of uncertainty and hopelessness in the world. The solution to all these problems lies in experiencing an ideal love relationship with God.
Throughout history, humankind has sought to answer the basic question: Why are we born? Some have concluded that they were born for the sake of their country Others have decided that they were born for the sake of their parents. Still others believe they were born for their own sake. People of faith believe they are born for the sake of God.
Yet, it is not enough to say that God created the universe for the sole benefit of human beings, or even for Himself. The creation of humankind involved the cooperation of many beings and elements. Although each had its own inherent purpose, they had to be aligned to initiate the creative process. God's purpose in creating, the angel's purpose in assisting, nature's purpose in providing the materials, and even the human purpose for being created must all be consistent. Each one must be pleased. There must be some common content that will be pleasing to God, to the angels, to the rest of creation, and to human beings themselves.
This common content must be something that gives greater happiness and joy the longer it is possessed. It should be something that, once we possess it, we would never let it go. It cannot be external in nature. It must be something internal and invisible. Things like knowledge, money and power are merely collateral conditions that are needed in people's lives. We are not born into the world for the purpose of possessing them. Such external things may exist in a reciprocal relationship with humankind, but only temporarily, not eternally.
God has no need for money If Almighty God ever needed money, He could create as much as He desired. Also, we know that God is the root of all knowledge, since He created the universe through certain principles and laws. Furthermore, the Creator God is the subject of power, so He has no need to seek power.
What, then, is this common content? It is something we cannot achieve through human effort alone. This is because human effort cannot control the fundamental origin of life. This content must be something capable of directing the motivation, course, and even final destination of each person's life.
From this perspective, this common content can only be true love. Human beings are born in love and are destined to go the path of love. People even die for love. This shows that love is more valuable than life itself. Moreover, we see that love precedes life. That is why people willingly offer even their lives for the sake of love.
Love is eternal. When human beings reach the state of consciousness in which they are able to love the universe, all the doors of the universe open to them. For example, I am just a tiny being occupying this space right here. But centered on love, I can reciprocate in relationship with a being of any size or magnitude. Let us say that God is an extremely large being. Then by the power of love, I can rise to a position reciprocal to that of the Absolute God. This is possible because love is an attribute of God.
Thus, a person who recognizes and keeps God's covenant of love can enjoy freedom anywhere in the universe. Such an individual, called by God to represent all humankind centering on this cosmic love, would be the Messiah. Jesus is that representative. We can never find this cosmic love without going through the Messiah. It is reasonable to say that all people on Earth will have to follow the Messiah. Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). The meaning of this would be clearer if the word love were added: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and the love; no one comes to the Father, but by me."
Parents and Children
The Divine Principle of the Unification Church teaches that energy is produced when a subject and object become one. In a family, parents hold the position of the subject partner and children hold the position of object partner. Once they reciprocate in a relationship of love, they become one entity-a true family. This entity then becomes a new object, which can enter into unity with a larger subject. If God is that subject, then the parent-child unity becomes one with God. We can also say that when a perfect subject-object relationship is formed with God, centering on His ideal of love, God and humankind can exist in total oneness. When the realm of love between God and humanity becomes a reality, the light of love will shine throughout the universe as bright and constant as the sun.
Not only is each person a life-connecting entity in whom the lives of both parents are brought together as one, but we are also partners in our parents' love. We are one with their love. Furthermore, we are one with their ideals, including happiness and peace.
Each person is connected to the lifeline, love-line and ideal-line of their parents, and no one can sever these lines. Even God cannot sever them, nor can the universe. In fact, all the forces of the universe work together to safeguard these lines. This is because the parents are the cause and the children are the result. The parents and children are one, centering on love. Cause and effect become one to form a substantial realm of love. This is a principle of the universe.
Three Stages of Life
Each person comes into the world through three sets of parents. The first parent is the material world. Elements from the world of matter combine to form each person as the center of the material world and as a complex material being. Thus, it can be said that these physical elements themselves are the ancestors who gave us birth. On the other hand, the material world is an extension of us. The universe is created so that matter can settle only in the ideal of love. It is only in the ideal of love that all cells can live in tranquility But this is all ruined whenever a person becomes angry
Our second set of parents is our physical parents. By giving birth to us, our parents gave us a particular form, and to this extent they are the masters of our lives. However, no matter how hard they may try, these parents cannot be the masters of our love.
The master of love is God. In this context, God exists so that love can be expanded into the entire universe and made eternal. Because God is the subject of love, He becomes the parent centering on love. That is why God is our third parent. So we have three sets of parents.
Human life can be divided into three periods: life in the womb of about ten months, a physical life of about a hundred years, and life in the spirit world that lasts tens of thousands of years into eternity.
If we look at our own faces, we also see three stages: the mouth, the nose and the eyes. These reflect the three periods of our lives. The mouth symbolizes the period in the womb, which is a world of material. The nose symbolizes the period on Earth, which is the world of humanity. The eyes symbolize the period in Heaven, which is the spirit world.
To the fetus, the aquatic world of its mother's womb is a world of total freedom. Interestingly, although it is constrained within the confines of the womb, the fetus feels completely free. In the womb, it can't stretch its legs as much as it would like, and the fetus relies on an umbilical cord to breathe and receive nutrients for survival since its nose and mouth are both useless in this world. Nevertheless, to the fetus, the world in the womb is one of complete freedom.
As soon as the baby is born, it begins to cry. At the same time, it starts to breathe through its nose and becomes linked to the second world, the world of air.
As the baby leaves the womb to enter the world of air, the umbilical cord is destroyed along with the water sac and everything it needed in the world of the womb. With the death of these things, the baby is born into the bosom of its new mother, the planet Earth. Once born, the baby begins to eat with its mouth and breathe with its nose. The food we eat on Earth nourishes our physical bodies, but it does not contain the essential element of life. This life element is nothing other than love. Thus, while we are in this world, we also need to breathe the air of love. We need to inhale this air of love from our mother and father.
Growing in Love
A newborn baby automatically searches for its mother's breast, following the vibrations of her love. Whether she is beautiful or ugly does not matter to the baby. The only thing that matters is that she is its mother. It is a sacred scene manifested in limitless variety. We are born in love and we grow by receiving love.
Once we are born, our parents take responsibility to see that we become good human beings during our life on Earth. Our parents act on behalf of the world, the nation and the family to teach and provide for us. We receive material things and education from our parents so that we may become complete as individuals. Based on this, we then become linked to a horizontal foundation of love, which is marriage.
Parents take responsibility for us until we marry. After marriage, we inherit the love shared by our mother and father. When we marry and start rearing our own children, we begin to understand how much our parents loved us and thus come to inherit parental love. In this way, the individual becomes capable of receiving and giving love completely This is how each of us matures as a complete man or woman.
We are born and mature in the vertical love of our parents, and later we engage in horizontal love. This is the only way we can find the integrated realm of love. Heaven and Earth together form a spherical world, covering all the dimensions of top and bottom, left and right, as well as front and back. When the vertical and horizontal love relationships are linked, they interact, revolve, become integrated, and finally emerge as a single center of harmony Once the vertical love of Heaven and Earth is firmly established as the axis internally and externally, then the need for horizontal love arises. This takes place during adolescence.
During adolescence, even the sight of an autumn leaf blowing along the ground can seem inspiring. Girls who used to be so reserved when they were younger suddenly start doing things to their hair, putting on make-up and trying on all sorts of clothes and accessories. Their interests expand as well. These are horizontal phenomena of love.
The Path of Life
When a husband and wife love each other, it symbolizes the planting of God. Parents represent God's original position. Here, the husband and wife each embody different sides of God. Also, each child is like a small God. Since God is the original entity of true love, when the various members of the family link themselves to true love, they become one body with God. Here, parents are the living embodiment of God representing Him. Husband and wife each represent God, and the children represent Him as well. Thus, three generations, centering on true love, stand in the position of God.
This is why all members of the family -- parents, husbands and wives, and children -- need true love. A family formed in this way, centering on true love, is the foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven. Unless we first establish such a foundation, the Kingdom of Heaven can never be established. This is the formula. The family is the center of the entire physical universe. People today do not realize that their family represents their country, world and universe. They do not know that their family is the center. Breaking apart a family is an act of rebellion against the country, world and universe.
Because a perfect family is the foundation for a perfect universe, a person who loves the universe as she loves her family can travel freely everywhere. In such a case, God, as the Parent of the entire universe, sits in the central position to these manifold relationships of love.
When a man and woman become one centering on true love, they form an ideal couple, and build an ideal family By doing so, they stand in a position representing God and thus are connected to everything in the universe. If this happens, then all of God's possessions become theirs. Think how wonderful that would be! This is the reason we naturally desire to have dominion over all creation.
Men and women come together as pairs to build families, societies, nations and the world. Thus, the family centering on one man and one woman must be the model for the tribe. This tribe, in turn, must be the model for the nation. Families must strive to achieve the ideal family, tribe and nation. Therefore, until ideal families appear, ideal nations will never emerge.
God and My Family
Respected guests! The greatness of true love is that it enables us to become God's object partners and also enables God to become us. The Bible speaks of God being in us and Jesus being in us. This is similar to the idea that the parent is in the child, the grandchild is in the grandparent, and the grandparent is in the grandchild.
A grandmother and grandfather should bind their hearts together centering on their grandchildren. This is necessary so that the vertical line of love can have a beginning. Also, grandchildren must become one with their grandparents. Grandparents are in the same position as God, so we should attend them as we would attend God. Grandchildren will not be able to find the vertical axis of love without doing this.
After the formation of this axis, the horizontal expansion can develop. The horizontal can be connected to all directions, but the vertical has only one direction. The horizontal can turn north, south, east or west; it has a range of 360 degrees. The vertical can move centering on one point only and cannot be split.
Our first task is to create mind and body unity, centering on love. Then, we need to know how to love the spirit world, which is the vertical world centered on God. Furthermore, if in the future a central country emerges, we should love humanity centering on that country. When we love the spirit world and the whole of humankind by means of sacrifice, service and dedication, we can automatically become the central figures who can have dominion over the two worlds, and make them into one. Then God will surely dwell there.
The entire spirit world, combined with the entire physical universe, is called the cosmos. The spirit world and the universe yearn for the unification of the cosmos centering on true love. True love can unify the cosmos. True love can transform all families into ideal families and make them one. Thus, we can conclude that true love is the only thing that humanity needs absolutely, whether we are alive on the Earth or are in the spirit world.
We can conclude, therefore, that nothing in this world is more precious than a true person who possesses true love. As the highest being in creation, human beings are in a reciprocal position equal to God's. Thus human beings should be able to act even more quickly than electricity or light, which travels at three hundred thousand kilometers per second. It is our spiritual selves that make such a thing possible. The fastest action in the world is not electromagnetic waves.
In the world of God's original ideal, a person who has experienced true love has the ability and authority to possess instantly anything God wants.
People need to experience such a state while on Earth. One can rise to this position only if the physical and spiritual selves become one while establishing a love relationship with God, centered on the true family. We can feel God's love by loving our countrymen, the people of the world, and creation. Each of us, regardless of nationality, must develop the heart to love people of all races. We should love not just people but even the smallest microorganism. This love has to spring naturally from within. When a flower blooms, its beauty and fragrance come naturally. The blossom of love has to bloom in the same way. The fragrance of love should fill the air naturally.
To do this, we need to receive the nutrients that make it possible for the blossom of love to bloom. In the same way that plants receive nutrients from the soil and sun, we receive nutrients through our physical body and spirit self. We receive vitality elements through our physical bodies, and then we receive living spirit elements through our spirit selves.
This is how we become beings who are totally equipped to love and how we develop the ability to fly anywhere. When this happens, the solar system and the entire universe become the stage of our activity.
The Next World
When we finish our physical life, we go through a second birth. This is called death. The place into which we are born this second time is the spirit world. We go into the spirit world and, on behalf of the entire universe, receive love from God, our third parent. That is to say, we receive ideal love. Thus in the spirit world, unification is inevitable.
In the spirit world, people breathe and live centered on love. We are born in love, live in love, and give birth to sons and daughters through love as God's representatives. Eventually, we reach the resting-place of love, and return to God so that we may live eternally in His presence. In other words, our lives begin in love, ripen in love, and are finally harvested as the fruit of love. When a person dies, he harvests the fruit of his love.
During our life, we receive the love of our parents, share love with our husband or wife, and give love to our children, bringing to fruition all the seeds of God's love sown in the internal world of love. Eventually, we harvest this fruit and go into the next world. Thus when we become completely one in love, we come to resemble God. If a husband and wife work together to complete the three stages of love and then go to the spirit world, they will exist as creators and lords in a reciprocal relationship with God, who is the eternal subject. That is what happens when a husband and wife die centering on love. We begin and end in God.
To die means to move from a world of land, where we crawl and walk, to a world where we fly freely We pass through death in order to become qualified travelers who, with love, can enjoy the entire universe. That is why death is, in reality, a new birth.
The Suffering of God
Ladies and gentlemen, our life course is not a smooth path. This is because human beings fell. The Fall of the original human ancestors did not result in misery only for human beings. God, also, suffered misery. For this reason, we do not dedicate our lives only to the accomplishment of the ideal world. An even more important goal for our life is to clear away the sorrow and agony in the heart of God, who is the origin of all life. Thus, when human beings finally attain happiness, then God, too, will be happy God and humankind have gone through the course of history in the same situation, pursuing the same goal.
As a result of losing Adam and Eve, God has walked the most difficult path, a path that no one would choose to walk. Human beings, too, have walked this inevitable path of destiny brought about by the Fall, always hoping for the coming day of salvation.
Humankind's most fervent hope in relation to God is to become His sons and daughters. This is because no relationship is more intimate than that of parent and child. We were born when the love and life of our parents converged, and thus we represent their ideals. But words like love and ideals never refer to just one person. Life cannot be created by one person alone, but must come from a love relationship between husband and wife. Thus when God created humankind, He created us to be the object partners of His love, His life and His ideals. This is amazing and incredible.
If I did not exist, my parents' love could not become visible. The love, life and ideals of my parents exist in relation to me. I am the fruit of my parents' love, life and ideals. That is why the child's position is the most precious of all.
Had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would have been the children of God's direct lineage, and His royal descendants. That is, Adam and Eve were the prince and princess who stood to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world and on Earth. At the same time, because they were created as the objects of the invisible God, who is the subject, Adam and Eve were substantial beings who could receive His love. They were substantial manifestations of the invisible God.
It is the special privilege of a child of God to say, "God is mine. All that is His is also mine. Even His love, His life and His ideals are mine." It is up to human beings to recover this amazing and incredible value that was originally ours.
The Messiah's Mission
If God is the subject of love, who exists eternally, then the reciprocal partners of His love must also exist eternally When I become one with God's love, God becomes me.
Had Adam and Eve not fallen, their bodies would have been the homes where God could dwell. They would have placed God at the center of their hearts and become entities of love, life and lineage who were unified eternally through true love. If they had done this, our mind and body would not be in conflict today.
The Fall meant that we inherited the life and lineage of evil, centering on evil love. We were born from false parents. We, therefore, have to rebuild the lineage. We have to take the false olive tree and change it into a true olive tree. To do this, we should be engrafted onto the true olive tree, go through at least three generations, and produce the fruit that becomes the true olive tree representing the original standard. Only then will fallen human beings be restored to the original state. That is when the Providence of Salvation will be completed.
In this way God is trying to make human beings become children of the parents of goodness, centering on love that is one with Him. This is why He sends the Messiah to the Earth as True Parents. The Messiah is the one who comes to return the lineage of all humankind to God and establish the original ideal of creation.
Before seeking to excel on the world stage, humankind should have first excelled in the original family of Adam and Eve. Had Adam and Eve taken their places as lineal prince and princess before God, they would have been the most exalted among all men and women. They, however, fell and lost their entitled positions of the elder son and daughter, the crown prince and princess. This tragedy has remained throughout human history. That is why humankind has traveled a path of life in search of the positions of first son and first daughter so that we might recover God's true love.
If we are to receive His true love, we cannot live selfishly, centering on our own self. Instead, we should live for the sake of God and humankind as our brothers and sisters. The more a person sheds blood and tears for her brothers and sisters in place of her parents, the deeper, wider and higher will be the love she receives. This is the son and daughter we must become if we are to inherit everything from our parents. Every man and woman must go this path. Even if we have to face death ten times or a hundred times, we must continue our search for God's true love. This is the supreme path of life.
The Original Homeland
The Divine Principle of the Unification Church teaches that the Fall occurred when human beings left the realm of God's true love. Restoration means to return to that realm. When a person enters the realm of such love, he can merely look at his body and praise it tens of thousand of times. In that world, you know that your own body is one that receives God's true love. Words cannot express such joy. This wonderful world is called the Kingdom of Heaven.
Until now, people knew relatively little about the spirit world. It is a world where people are recognized depending on how closely they followed God's principle of existence -- the principle of living for the sake of others. A world built on this content is the ideal Kingdom of Heaven.
This is the original homeland for which all humankind must search. Today, we live as fallen people who have been expelled from our homeland, so it is our destiny to return there. However, we cannot do this on our own.
God has worked through history to resolve this problem by establishing numerous religions in accordance with the different cultural backgrounds, customs and traditions of various nations. He has done this so that human beings would have a path to lead them back. Religion is the training ground where we can cultivate the qualifications that enable us to return to our homeland. In accordance with the cultural background of each region, God is guiding us toward one unified world of religion that can advance us to a higher ground.
Let us make the new millennium an age of true peace and true ideals in which people will practice the way of true love. I hope we will recover the value of true original human beings centered on God, establish true families, and live for others eternally, centering on God and the True Parents.
May your families and country be filled with an ever greater abundance of God's love and blessings.
Thank you very much.
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Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life
Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon
President, Women's Federation for World Peace
This address was given on April 1-16, 1996, on a 16-city North American speaking tour.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends:
Thank you for coming tonight. My husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and I are speaking throughout the world. We are sharing our desire to work with each one of you, beyond race, nation and religion, to create a world of peace. Therefore, I know that you will consider my message seriously
Humanity is now facing the challenge of the Last Days. In this era, families the world over are breaking down. Husbands and wives, parents and children are becoming enemies to one another. What is the cause of this tragedy?
The cause is a lack of true love. Equally significant is the fact that we are ignorant of our most important responsibility That responsibility is to prepare for eternal life. If we are clear about the concept of eternal life, and if we accept its reality in our hearts, then we can lead our children and our families properly. But in truth, most people are unsure if the spirit world even exists.
If we truly understand the reality of the spirit world, we cannot sin, even when temptation presents itself. We cannot live selfishly, even if told to do so. On the other hand, if we do not understand the spirit world, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God, no matter what our religion.
On the larger scale, without knowing the meaning of eternal life, we cannot create a true social revolution. If it is not connected to eternal life, social revolution may make things worse. No one desires that.
To this day, religions have neither embraced nor encompassed the secular world. As a result, secularism now controls culture. Secularism overpowers the influence of religion. This happened because religions were unable to establish a clear concept of eternal life.
Christianity also faces this challenge. Although people have practiced Christianity faithfully for many centuries, many churches today are confused. In the Last Days, they are objective to the changes taking place in the world. Even Christianity does not have a clear and logical understanding of eternal life.
In short, no one has complete confidence concerning eternal life. In fact, people do not even know with certainty whether or not God exists. When faced with the obstacles and temptations of this world, most people waver. They fall away from their faith, and follow the secular way.
The Reason We Should Understand Eternal Life
As we reach our forties and fifties, we come closer to the end of our life. We naturally become serious about the concept of eternal life. The older we become, the more serious we are. Ordinarily, the intensity of love declines as people age. But if our perception of eternal life has strong roots, then our love will grow and deepen as we get older.
How often have you been confused by the changes taking place in our world today? If our focus on eternal life is clear and unchanging, we will overcome the insecurities of our changing environment. We will be able to digest all the circumstances of our lives, the joys and sorrows that come our way
God created Adam and Eve as His partners of true love. Accordingly, we should live as God's true love partners. This should not be a theory. We should allow this dynamic to work in our lives and put it into practice each day.
Once we realize the power of true love, we will strive against adversity to walk the road of true love. In daily life, we will always feel the security that comes from belief in eternal life. When this conviction overflows within us, our lives will be secure.
This has important implications for education of our children. If it is clearly explained to them, young people readily embrace the concept of eternal life. They are uniquely blessed to feel eternal life resonate in their mind and body.
Until reaching age sixteen, boys and girls possess an unfallen purity of character. They reflect the original character of Adam and Eve, who did not fall until they were sixteen. Because of this, it is vital that young people know God deeply.
Through knowledge of God, we can understand our inseparable relationship with Him. But in order to know this, young people must first understand the concept of eternal life.
Earthly Life and Eternal Life
How long do you think you will live? All of us think we will live until we are seventy or eighty years old. It is hard to imagine that we will die before then. In this regard, we can all be considered greedy.
But in truth, even those who seem confident that they will live a long time have no idea when they are going to die. It could be as soon as today or tomorrow. We may even die during a meal or while we are sleeping. Does God guarantee anyone a long life span?
Imagine that you knew you would die within a year. You would have to prepare for your passing in a very short period of time. With this newfound urgency, you might actually be happier. After all, you would be able to prepare for death in less time. The less time you use to prepare for death, the less time you will waste in your life. And if you prepare well, you can build a home for your eternal life.
How long do you wish to live? What if God told you that you had to die tonight? What legacy would you leave behind? Would you leave behind something of which God would be proud? While we are living in this world, we should always give our best. We should invest 24 hours a day to bring even one more person to God's love.
The highest standard of dedication to God is to not even want to stop to eat or sleep. We should not be consumed by worry over worldly needs. If you live with such sincerity, you will have eternal life in the next world.
The shorter we expect our physical life to be, the more value we will find in it. In this context, we should ask ourselves, "How much do I love others?" "How much do I love my family?" "How much do I love my clan?" "What does it mean to love others, to love my family, to love my clan?" This serves as the foundation to love all humanity. It is a wise approach to life. You will not lose if you live this way
The Reason to Live an Eternal Life
The purpose of a life of faith is to seek the world of eternal life and God's eternal love. The way of a life of faith is to discover and rejoice in God's joy as our own. By living this way, we become one with God's eternal love and eternal life.
Accordingly, it is most important for people of faith to invest unceasing energy for God's life and love. The world's religions have expanded through history, against the backdrop of every culture. This is because our human destiny is to live an eternal life.
We are to live not just in our own era, but also in harmony with the entire universe. Once we reach the limit of life on Earth, we continue life in an eternal, unlimited world. Such a world exists in reality. Even those who do not believe it exists, or who do not fully comprehend it, have postulated eternal life. They did this in order to help and comfort humanity through their suffering and pain.
But God's existence is a reality beyond time and space. When we internalize the depth of this eternal truth, it becomes our starting point. Then we can find the answers to our questions concerning eternal life and God.
For what purpose and in what position did God create humankind? God created man and woman as His partners of true love. We were to have God's absolute and unique value. This is a startling revelation! In this light, the value of each person's life is infinite. Even the entire universe cannot replace the value of one person in the eyes of God.
All people are meant to be born in true love, to live and grow in true love, and even to die in true love. God is eternal, unchanging and unique. We stand as the eternal object of God's true love. Therefore, we are created to live eternally Our eternal life has its roots in our relationship with God, as His partner of true love.
The Eternal Love Partner of the Creator
God's love is absolute. Since God's love was lost through the human fall, God has experienced indescribable misery and almost hopeless sorrow throughout history. No one has ever understood this; no one has been able to fully comfort God.
God, in the depth of His heart, wants to recreate His long-awaited love partner. God wants to embrace His children. He will travel any distance to meet them. Only by meeting His sons and daughters can He express His joy to the fullest. In actuality, God created the entire universe for His children.
Consider the earth's atmosphere. When low-pressure system forms, a high-pressure system appears automatically. Through this phenomenon, air circulation is self-sustaining.
God has taught us to forget the good that we do for others. This creates a spontaneous and natural circular motion of give and take in our daily lives. It is similar to the natural phenomenon we observe in the atmosphere. This constant cycle of give and take leads to eternal life.
Eternal life can begin with nothing other than eternal commitment. To be specific, as long as one lives for the sake of others, one will never perish. A life of giving will surely grow and progress steadily. The person who lives thus will eventually take a central position as the nucleus of society.
If God were to seek an absolute love partner, who would merit such a position? It is natural to conclude that God's love partner would have to be humankind. That is why human beings are held to be the most precious beings among all of God's creation.
When we are able to accept that we are the eternal true love partner of the Creator, we can easily understand that we live for eternity The concept of eternity naturally follows from this. It takes place right here! The religious world must bear in mind that the foundation of eternal life is the relationship of true love. In its simplest terms, eternal life stems neither from man nor from woman but from God's true love.
Only True Love Provides Salvation
Today, Christians proclaim that any individual can possess eternal life just by believing in Jesus. If I ask them how one can secure eternal life, they answer, "Just believe." Of course it is essential that we have absolute faith, but I would like you to consider a further perspective based on the meaning of eternal life.
Consider the aspect of continuity. The functioning of the physical body has continuity For instance, our blood circulation, nervous system and brain should function continuously and smoothly.
From this perspective, what would you answer if someone asked you how you plan to secure eternal life? The life of the spirit also should have continuity. Then are you truly able to claim, "My eternal life is guaranteed through belief alone"? Does salvation come from belief and nothing else? Absolutely not. True salvation requires a continuity of the practice of true love from this physical world to the spirit world.
According to the principles by which God created this world, only a true person can become God's true love partner. Only with true love can one become such a person and obtain eternal life.
The key is to rid ourselves of the ignorance and burdens of the Fall. The fundamental question is how to free ourselves from evil love, an evil life and an evil lineage. Only in this context does liberation have any meaning. Only complete liberation from evil brings true freedom. True freedom is self-sustaining.
The Idea Necessary for Eternal Life
We are created to live an eternal life. We are similarly created to practice true love. Furthermore, we are to practice true love here on the Earth. We engage ourselves with many things in this world. These things become the material that insures our eternal life. In other words, everything we do in this world is training for eternal life.
We are fully capable of living forever! We desire an eternal life! In our search for eternal life, what does not change? Only true love does not change! Everything in this universe changes, but true love does not change.
This is because true love is the center. The center will remain intact even if everything that surrounds it disappears. True love is the center of the universe. It is one with God's love. Consequently, as long as God is unchanging, true love is unchanging.
What does true love mean? A husband desires that his wife be better than he is. A wife also wants her husband to surpass her. Are there any parents who do not want their children to surpass them? Why do we share this feeling? It is because we all are created in the very image of God. In other words, even God wants His love partner to be better than Himself, in the same sense that parents want their children to surpass them.
God is absolute, but at the same time He is our Parent. Can God impose an absolute standard upon us, and not upon Himself as well? No, He cannot. In light of this, our value is the highest in the universe.
In fact, in the realm of true love, we can have a value even higher than that of God Himself. This is why our minds have the highest of aspirations. Thus, we truly should feel that nothing is impossible.
God originally intended that His children rule this universe from the position of highest value. We were not to have been sidetracked or manipulated in any way. We were never to have been under the dominance of any force or being.
To confirm this, simply look into your mind. The mind desires complete freedom. No one wants their mind to be controlled. Once we secure the position of true love, we are totally free. We can travel anywhere. We can travel to God's throne and become God's friend.
God is eternal and absolute. Therefore, since God created us as His partners of true love, it is natural to conclude that we can enjoy eternal life. Clearly then, in order for a man to live an eternal life, he must dwell in the realm of true love. Only through true love is abundant eternal life possible.
The origin, motive and process of God's creation center on true love. No result can come without a process taking place, and the process of perfection is based upon the practice of true love. The perfection of mind and body is possible only when they both belong to the realm of true love.
Only true love can bring about the ideal. This is because God Himself exists for eternity upon the foundation of true love. Upon what, do you think, does God center His own eternal existence? Without question, God's eternal life is centered on true love.
Therefore, we also live with true love as our center. In this way we create the realm of eternal life. In order to find this realm, we practice true love in daily life.
I would like you to know that Reverend Moon has poured his life, his heart, and the resources of his church into America. Through this practice, true love was actualized. Without actualizing true love, there is no eternal life.
To Know God, Eternal Life and True Love
Even though we are not sure where in the spirit world God dwells, we should at least clearly understand that God is the center of true love. The power of true love is the fastest and the most direct. True love travels in a straight line. Why do you think I emphasize true love so fervently? It is because of my direct experience of this truth. Once you experience God and the eternal world, you too will never be able to have an indifferent attitude toward life.
First, we must know God. Second, we must know our eternal life. Third, we must know true love. True love means giving more than 100 percent of oneself. In this way, we can find eternal life. Without true love, there is no eternal life. Without eternal life, we can never meet God.
How should you prepare for the world of the future? First, be altruistic. Second, practice true love. Third, seek eternal life. With the sincere practice of these virtues, we can manage the world in the coming age. The opposite way is the self-centered way of life. That is the ideology of Satan. In contrast to satanic love, what is true love? True love is to invest yourself beyond the point of life and death. It is only through this intensity of life that we can find true love.
The fundamental root of evil life is the satanic lineage. Our lineage belongs to Satan. Our love belongs to Satan. But God's love transcends satanic love. And so the Bible teaches, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment." (Mt. 22:37-38)
What does this really mean? Loving God with all your soul and with all your mind means to give your life completely to God. This is the first great commandment.
The second commandment is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." What does this mean? It tells us to love others even at the cost of our lives. We have to invest ourselves in this way of life.
Then why should we commit ourselves with total intensity? Unless we commit ourselves to this degree, first, we cannot make Satan surrender. Second, we cannot free ourselves from the satanic environment in which we live. Third, we cannot eradicate our satanic lineage.
Even if we were able to separate from the satanic environment, we cannot eradicate the satanic lineage by ourselves. We need the power of true love, which is greater than our life.
The World after Death Is Related to Love
There is no concept of time for God. This means that the beginning and the end are the same in eternity Likewise, the past, the present and the future are the same. Then what within God harmonizes everything and enables God to dwell in peace? This is a serious question. It is not God's almighty power. It is not His omniscience. It is nothing other than the power of love. Even God Himself responds unconditionally to true love. This is because God does not need anything other than true love.
Most people agree that we will enter the spirit world upon our death. But the spirit world is not just the dwelling place of the departed. The spirit world is connected to true love. The starting point of God's creation is true love. Therefore, once we secure true love in the physical world, this too will become the spirit world. This alone tells us how powerful true love is.
Through the perfect relationship of vertical and horizontal, harmonious movement in all directions-up and down, right and left, forward and back-can take place. But when vertical and horizontal are disconnected, there is no harmony. In that case, there can be no unification.
True love alone can connect vertical and horizontal. This brings about unification and harmony. The central thought of the Unification Church, based on the perspective of the Divine Principle, is that the ideal world is centered on true love.
Ladies and Gentlemen, God wants to guide humankind. God breathes through true love. Since the rhythm of the universe is in harmony with God, the universe exists for eternity In God's true love, we can find eternal life. That is why when husband and wife connect with true love, they find complete joy When the rhythm of true love is in balance, we can love one another. In this atmosphere there is only one direction in our life. That direction is centered on God.
The Kingdom of God and the Gate of the Blessing
Both the spirit world and the physical world move in conjunction with true love. The universe maintains a natural balance, centering on the vertical axis of true love. What is the common denominator of the universe? What is the universal norm, by which people of the past and the present can live together for eternity? What is the origin of human desire? The answer to all these questions is the same. The answer is true love. The norm is not selfish love; it is true love. Only the practice of true love can embrace people of all races, all nations and all religions.
There are over five billion people living in this world at present. Yet there are not many among the world's population who understand the meaning of the Blessing. My husband and I have been the first to adopt the word "blessing" in the context of marriage. Many such marriage Blessings have now been conducted.
Where will humanity head in the future? Humanity can enter the Kingdom of God by passing through the gate of this Blessing. There are millions of Christians in our world today, and Christianity itself can enter the Kingdom of God through the gate of the Blessing.
Some Christians complain that Reverend Moon's teaching is self-righteous. Of course, nothing can be done about this point of view since it is their own. Nonetheless, I am here to convey the message that the Unification marriage Blessing is the true road for all fallen people to take.
No matter how much persecution it may cause, we are to connect the spirit world and the physical world through this Blessing, and enter the Kingdom of God.
Other religious people think of salvation in terms of the individual. They believe that as long as their faith is strong, they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven as individuals. But from the viewpoint of God's original ideal, we were never intended to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as single people. We enter only with our loving spouse and family
Spiritual Life as Couples
The real purpose of life is to walk forward on the road of true love. We are to grow through harmonious relationships of true love. We should carefully maintain the ideal of true love in our hearts. We are actually the representatives of the spirit world. Let us constantly strive to spread true love. Let us sow the seeds of true love throughout our lives.
When we bear the fruit of true love and enter the eternal spirit world as a loving couple, we will be embraced by God's eternal love. We then truly become one with God. Even though the physical body grows old, as long as we live as husband and wife centering on true love, our spiritual body will actually become younger! This means that the longer we live, the more handsome or beautiful our spiritual body becomes.
Our spirit is our internal self. At the proper time we simply will shed the physical body. Our physical body may feel that it does not want to retire. But with the coming of old age, it eventually must surrender its life. On the other hand, our spiritual body, like a chestnut in autumn, becomes more solid and more handsome as it becomes our physical body's successor.
Why Is Marriage Necessary?
We must love the things of the material world, which includes our physical body and the food that nourishes it. We love what is close to us before loving God directly
By loving all things, we absorb the essence of the creation. By doing this, we love and nourish the physical body.
Your first parents, of course, are your physical parents. Your second parent is the Earth. From the Earth we receive essential elements that the body needs in order to grow. In this way the Earth is the second parent.
After being nurtured and cared for by our second parent, we prepare to meet our third parent. There is a process through which we pass in order to realize this. That process is our physical death. We do not meet our third parent free of charge. To be able to return to our third parent, we must resemble our original parent, God.
Why then do we get married? Very simply, we marry in order to resemble God. God exists as a being of dual characteristics. In God, the dual characteristics are completely harmonized as One. When God's dual characteristics manifest in our world, they do so as man and woman. Accordingly, at the proper time, a man and a woman are like a seed. They unite to become one. Thus, husband and wife return to God. Together, we are a reflection of His original nature.
We need marriage because it is the true way to develop our love. In marriage, we ripen as a seed of God. Our entire life should be centered on true love. We should be born in true love; we should grow in true love; we should live centered on true love; and we should return to true love when we die. The way of true love is life for the sake of others. This is the purpose of a holy marriage. If we take any other path, we are taking the wrong direction for eternal life.
The marriage Blessing and eternal life stem from God working through True Parents' love. Through our union with the True Parents, we can fulfill God's original hope for the individual, the family, the nation, the world and the entire cosmos. Ultimately, we can complete God's ideal of creation. Through True Parents we can find our original homeland, the starting place for the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven. With this foundation in place, we can welcome an era in which God is our sovereign. The society that does so will never perish. It will continuously prosper and reach its fullest strength.
I sincerely ask that you contemplate deeply about the meaning of this sermon. If you practice it, you will find the way to receive God's abundant Blessing and eternal life.
May God truly bless you.
Thank you very much.
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Understanding Life and Death
Reverend Sun Myung Moon
President, Family Federation for World Peace
This speech was presented at the International Religious Foundation for World Peace conference, December 18, 1998, Washington, DC.
We live in the physical world, but we know that this is not the only world that exists. There is also the spirit world. The spirit world is a definite reality. We also know that these two worlds-the physical world and spirit world-are not meant to be disconnected from each other. They should be linked together as one single world.
We human beings, who were born from the spirit world, eventually return to that world. In Korea, we commonly use an interesting idiom in reference to death. When someone dies, we say, "he has returned." To where does he return? It is not to a cemetery. We mean that we return to the point of life's origin. We return across the vast expanses of history. In the process, we shed our nationality. We return to the world that brought forth the human ancestors. If a Creator exists, then we are returning to the world of the Creator. That is where we originated, so it is there that we finally return.
The universe is engaged in circular motion everywhere. For example, when the snow melts on the mountain, it forms a small stream. As it flows down, its volume increases until it becomes a river. Eventually it reaches the ocean. From the ocean it evaporates, completing the circle by returning into the atmosphere.
The School of Life
All beings desire to reach a higher ground, a better place, through circular motion. Where, then, is the better place we go to live eternally? While in the physical world, we live in our physical body Our mind, though, is headed toward the eternal world. We are born into this world, and we pass through our teenage years, our twenties, thirties, middle age, and we eventually reach old age. Ultimately, we come to the end of our lives, just as the sun finally sets on the horizon. Those who know that the spirit world exists, however, know very well that the time spent in our physical body is relatively short, and that the world we face after we die is eternal. They know that our life on earth is a period of preparation for the eternal world.
We are like students who must earn credits in all our classes so that we can fulfill our school's requirements. The school determines the extent to which its students meet its standard and decides whether it can recognize them. The further a student's credits fall short of the standard, the more removed that student is from the school's standard of value. In a similar way, the value of all beings is measured against a standard. Our life in the physical world is a period of preparation comparable to the time a student spends trying to earn good marks at school. In other words, we spend our entire life on earth preparing and striving to make good marks. We live each day of our life centering on a measurement. That measurement is in accord with a particular standard. We are accountable to that standard for our entire life on earth.
The Unity of the Spirit World
Most people in society do not know with certainty about the original world where we go after life in this world. They do not know whether there is life after death, or even whether God exists. Eventually, everyone goes to the spirit world. It turns out that the spirit world is a single realm. It is not divided into many countries, as is the physical world. Then, what is it like in the spirit world? We can compare it with the water that serves as the environment for fish. Water is an absolute condition for the fish to live. That doesn't mean, however, that a fish will spend its entire life in one place. A fish that lives in fresh water cannot spawn if it remains in its river. It has to leave the fresh water and come into contact with salt water in order to lay its eggs. It thus passes through two worlds. In the same way, our mind, part of spirit world, and body, part of the physical world, must be interconnected.
At the beginning of human history, a realm of global unity should have formed in honor of Adam's birthday, the anniversary of his holy marriage and the anniversary of his death. Then humanity could have united as one people by our sharing in the commemoration of those days. Instead of dividing, humanity could have lived in a single realm. If this had happened, then Adam and Eve's way of life would have passed down through human history. The culture formed would have endured as long as human beings continued to exist.
The Value of Hope
Each of us goes through life ignorant of when we will die. We do not know that we won't die in a traffic accident. I think some people will die saying, "Oh, Reverend Moon was right!" expressing regret only at that moment. We need to know that we are travelling a very serious path in life. We need to use every second of our life to prepare ourselves for the eternal world. We should be aware that we are standing on such a fateful path.
When people go to spirit world, they can be divided into two general types. The first comprises those who live out their natural life in this world, and the second comprises those who experience an untimely death. Among the latter, some die as a result of punishment and others die in order to pay indemnity for the nation or the world. Suppose God established one person in a central position with the value of a thousand people. What if God made that one person go the way of death in the place of those thousand people?
In such an instance, the grace and virtue of the one who died in their place would move the hearts of the thousand people. They would determine to live for the benefit of that person, model their lives after that person, and live as he lived. If they did this, the thousand people would enter the same realm of grace as the one who died for them. The reason we try to follow the philosophy of patriots and model our lives after wise men is that we desire to enter the same realm of grace as these people.
Some people live with hope while others live without hope. We can divide people's hope and aspiration into two general types: that centered on human beings and that centered on Heaven. A newborn infant thinks that his mother's bosom is the most wonderful place in the world. At a certain point in its development, however, the child leaves its mother's bosom. As the child grows, he or she forms friendships, thinking himself happiest when he is with his friends. Eventually, though, the young person will leave his friends behind. During our life course, we come to discover that neither loving parents, nor a loving spouse nor even loving children can completely satisfy our hopes.
People have many kinds of hopes. Eventually, all these hopes pass away We have hopes for our family, hopes for our country and hopes for the world. But the reality is that as we grow older, our hope grows weaker. Some people boast that their hope represents the hope of all humankind, but find they lack the conviction to pursue it at the sacrifice their life. People fervently entertain many hopes during the course of their life. But when they face death, they abandon all their hopes. They desire to stay alive one more day. Day after day they wander in search of something new in which to place their hope. When they finally face death, though, all their hope fades away and they fall into despair as they set out on their final path. We know all too well that this is true.
Viewed as an individual, it may appear that a person possesses worthy aspirations. But no individual hopes live beyond death. In my view, it is important for all people on earth today to give serious consideration to one question. How can we find hope that will not collapse in front of death, but will transcend it? All things of this world will pass away Our families, nations, and even the world itself will pass away Ideologies and philosophies will pass away What is it that remains? Whatever remains, that is the hope that can defeat death.
We can consider a person who does not possess such a hope or aspiration to be defeated in life. There are people who, from the time they are born, reject all the hopes and aspirations of the secular world. These people embrace aspirations not of the human world but of Heaven, hopes that are eternal. Heaven helps these people. A life of faith does not embrace any aspiration that exists on earth. Instead, it embraces the hopes that surpass even the gates of death. It dreams of the world of eternal hope.
Overcoming the Fear of Death
Someday I, too, will die. When we are young, we don't think much about death. But we become increasingly serious about death as we grow older. This is because death is a gate through which we are inevitably destined to pass. But what happens to us after we die? Do you know why I am talking about death? I talk about death in order to teach the meaning of life. Who really knows the value of life? It is not the person who is going all out to preserve his life. The only person who really knows about life is the one who goes into the valley of death. He confirms the meaning of life as he desperately cries out to Heaven at the crossroads of life and death.
Why do people fear death? It is because they do not know the purpose for which we are born. Those who do not know why we are born do not know why we die. Therefore, the first questions philosophers ask are: "What is life? Why are we born?" If we think about it, we realize that when we die we are reborn into the midst of God's love. But in the human world, people cry out, "Oh no, I'm going to die! What am I to do?" They make a big fuss. Do you think that God laughs, "Ho ho ho!" when we die? Or do you think God cries out, "Oh no!" and is overwhelmed with sorrow? The truth is, He is happy This is because the moment of the physical body's death is the moment we experience the joy of leaving the finite realm of love in order enter the infinite realm of love. It is the moment of our second birth.
Then is God happier on the day we are born into the physical world, or at that moment we leave our physical body behind? At that moment, we are born a second time into the realm of the infinite expansion of love. We become His new children through death. Of course, God is happier at the second birth. I am telling you this because you need to know that you cannot have a relationship with God unless you are released from the fear of death.
Our Two Births
It makes God happy to watch and directly take part in our life. Consider how a baby is born and wets its diapers as it begins the process of growth. God is happy because as the child grows, the pulse of love that is in God's heart also grows. When God makes a face, babies imitate Him and make the same face. When God smiles, babies also smile, and when He is sad they also are sad. This is how babies gradually grow to resemble God. As babies grow, they also begin to resemble their parents. From their parents, they learn language and the rules for daily life. Of course, all these things have their origin in God.
So, after God has lived with us on earth and goes, whoosh, over to the other side, what are we supposed to do? If we say, "Wait, God, I want to go with You," will He reply, "Who are you? I don't know you"? Is He likely to leave us behind like that? Or will He want to take us with Him? Of course, He will want to take us with Him. But when God says, "I can't take you with me now. I'll take you with me after you have grown a little more. I want you to work a bit more on your perfection," we can reply, "Well, we can't go now, but we are certain that there will come a time when we are able to go." Then we can wait for that day.
In our physical body, we are unable to follow God wherever He goes. It is only natural that we would aspire to resemble God. On His part, God also would want His sons and daughters to resemble Him. We must conclude, then, that God designed us to be born again into a body that enables us to resemble Him. God and human beings long for that eternal day when we can soar through the heavens together. The day we are born as beings who can take wing with God, the day we are born into that body, that is the day of our physical death. On that day we cast off the physical body like an old coat. Then, should we welcome death or fear death? The answer, of course, is that we should welcome death.
For what purpose, then, should we die? We should die for the sake of God's true love. That is the love whereby we seek to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of others. We can conclude that the reason we cast off our physical body is so that we can participate in the realm of God's work of love. We die for the sake of the world of God's love.
Wouldn't you like to be born as God's real sons and daughters, who can receive and practice true love? If we could measure God's wealth, how rich do you think He would be? Have you ever thought about that? With all those stars in the universe, isn't it likely that there is one star that is a solid diamond? How about a star of pure gold? God is truly omniscient and omnipotent. Wouldn't He want His children to have everything? What do you think? God can go from one end of the vast universe to the other in an instant. Is this something that you would find interesting to do?
To gain that ability, what do we need to do? We must keep the laws that God has established for us. Only when we do so is it possible for us to be with Him. It is impossible if we just behave any way we want. Are you confident that you can refrain from doing what God tells you not to do? Human beings have a dual structure. The mind is the subject partner and the body is the object partner. It is necessary that the two become one, with the body subordinating itself to the mind.
Three Stages of Life
We go through three realms that correspond to the stages of formation, growth and completion. We go through the realm of water in our mother's womb, then the realm of the planet earth, and finally the heavenly realm of floating in air. We go through the period in the water of the womb and are born into the world. We live in our physical body in this world for about a hundred years, until we enter the world in which we fly through the air. We pass through these three realms.
When a fetus is in the womb, it resists leaving the womb for the outside world. It fights as hard as it can to stay in the womb. The reason is that when the fetus leaves the womb, its home is destroyed. All its nourishment and everything else it had in the womb breaks apart and flows away. Also, its head and body increase in size during the birth process. Who would want to go through something like that? Every fetus cries, "No!" right up to the moment of birth. Eventually the water breaks and the infant follows soon after.
As you watch a woman give birth to a child, you really have to feel sorry for her. Women who have given birth know what I am talking about. When the mother is pushing, it makes no difference how beautiful she may be. Her face contorts into all sorts of strange shapes. She makes such terrible faces that even her husband can't stand to watch and leaves the room. She makes just about every possible face. So, the mother, too, goes through tremendous pain up to the last moment in order for the baby to be born.
After birth, is it necessary to leave the umbilical cord connected to the baby's navel? Or is the umbilical cord chopped off without a second thought? Maybe someone should object, saying, "That cord is someone's lifeline. How can you cut a lifeline that connects one human being to another?" The newborn infant, too, cries at the top of its lungs because it thinks it is about to die. As God looks on, though, He can't help but break into a happy smile. From the viewpoint of the new life that has just been born, one world has just disappeared completely. Now it must breathe the air of its new world.
A child is conceived in the depth of water. The period in the womb is a period of existence in water. As long as the fetus is in its mother's womb, it is floating in water. At first thought, you might think the time in the womb would be difficult because the fetus cannot breathe. You would think that it would need a process of taking in and sending out water. This function is fulfilled by something like a hose attached to the baby's belly How does a fetus in the womb receive nourishment? It receives nourishment through its navel.
For the child in the womb, the navel functions as a mouth. So, we should not be disdainful of our belly buttons. Give your belly button a little rub and say, "Hey, belly button.
Thanks for working so hard back then." If you pat your belly button often, it is good for your health. No, seriously. It's a good way to exercise. It's good for your health to exercise your belly button. For example, a person sleeping in a cold room can avoid coming down with diarrhea as long as he keeps his belly button well covered.
The Breath of Love
We can refer to our belly button as our former mouth. Someone might say, "How foolish. Whoever heard of a former mouth?" There's no denying the fact, though, that your belly button once functioned as your mouth. The belly button also acted as a breathing apparatus. Your present mouth fulfills that function here on earth. The function has moved up on your body. The same function is as necessary for the spirit self as it is for the fetus in the womb.
The spirit self is attached to the physical body that lives on earth by breathing air. It lives off the physical body until the body grows old. Then the spirit self kicks the body away and tries to separate. If at that moment, the body cries out, "No, I don't want to die! I won't die!" how will God react? Will He feel sorry for the physical body, because of the pain it is enduring? Or will He quietly smile?
The child who experiences pain in order to emerge from its mother's womb grows to become the object of its parents' love. In the same way, our spirit self must leave behind our crying physical body in order to be born anew as the eternal object of the God who is a spiritual being. This is a conclusion based on the Principle. On earth, too, the baby can become the friend of its father and mother after it is born. This is because it is born into the physical world where it can share love with its father and mother. In the same way that the fetus swims around the mother's womb, life on earth is breathing and living in the swaddling clothes of air. Only when the baby shares love with its mother and father as it breathes air can we say it is alive. In the same way, we can share love with God our Parent, who exists as an eternal spiritual being, after we are born again into the spirit world.
What kind of place is the spirit world? When we enter spirit world, we begin to breathe through a hole on the top of our head and through our cells. The air in spirit world is not the air we have on earth. Instead, it is love. When a spirit person breathes, he or she inhales and exhales the nourishing elements of love. On earth, eating alone does not sustain our life. When we eat and drink, all we are doing is filling our sack with food and water. Eventually, we will die. The form we take during life on earth is our second existence. While on earth, we need to develop our character of love. Therefore on earth, the thing we need most is love. What is an orphan? Why do we call a child who cannot receive love from a father or mother an orphan? It is because such a child lacks the love by which he or she can connect eternally with spirit world. When love is absent, we are lonely That is why we feel sorry for a person who lives without a spouse.
Death destroys our ability to breathe in the second stage, and connects us with the nourishment of love. We eventually have no choice but to leave the physical body behind. We cannot see love, but our internal structure develops centering on the love of parents, of husband and wife, and of children. Just as there is a normal development for a child in its mother's womb, there is a normal course of development on earth. We follow it by living in accordance with the laws of God. We cannot do it by living just any way we want.
Human Flight
If we examine the world of nature, we see that insignificant insects, seeds of trees and even baby birds can fly. Does it make sense that human beings, the greatest of all creations, cannot fly? Look at the dandelion. It is made so that its seeds will fly away when the wind blows. Birds fly, insects fly and the seeds of plants fly Surely, human beings also must have been created with a way to fly Someone might be tempted to complain, "God, why did you create us without the ability to fly when everything else in creation can fly?" God's reply probably would be, "Wait a few decades until you reach completion and then I will let you fly"
So, what should we be doing until then? We need to train ourselves to be able to adapt to the spirit world. We need to train ourselves by loving our parents, loving our spouse and loving our children. Then, when the time comes, we will enter the eternal world and live in attendance to God. For that to take place, we must put aside this physical body and die.
Look at the life cycle of the cicada. Before a cicada can fly, it goes through a larval stage. What would happen if the cicada said, "I want to go on living as a larva. I don't want to shed my skin. I don't care about land and air"? Even if it were resisting its transformation, once it shed its skin it would fly away.
A similar situation holds true with the dragonfly. First, it exists as a larva, swimming around in water. Then it crawls on land for a time. After that, it sheds its skin and flies away. It begins to eat insects that it never would have thought of eating while it was living on land. As it flies around, the entire world becomes its home. Many insects pass through three stages like this. That is why insects have wings. They develop wings through their life in the water, on land and finally in the air.
Human beings are the highest beings in creation, but do we have wings? Does living only on the earth satisfy us? Human beings have wings, but they are wings of a higher order. You may say you don't want to put aside your physical body and die. But once we die and leave our physical body behind, our spirit self passes through the blessed gates of our second birth and whoosh, we fly away
Crossing the Finish Line
As I have already said, we cannot avoid death. We have to be prepared to suffer in order to establish the good that is in us as our second self in the eternal world. A fetus in its mother's womb must receive proper prenatal care if it is to be born healthy and strong. In the same way, we need to prepare ourselves properly while on earth. We need to grow by modeling ourselves on the image of God, the heart of God and the divinity of God.
Once we are grown, we need to invest our lives to pass over the line of life and death. We must pass over even if we have to brave the fiercest storm. It is not enough if we do well most of the way and then fall just short of the finish line. What must we do when we find ourselves approaching life's finish line? Even if we run with our mind focused totally on the goal, we can't be confident we will make it all the way. If we wander aimlessly at the end, we will be ruined. We win victory only as we dash across the finish line.
It is an effort worth making for everyone born as a human being. No matter how much opposition there may be from behind, no matter how much persecution comes from the side, you just have to push forward one step at a time. There is no time to get entangled with the opposition. You have to keep going as quickly as you can, even one step at a time, in order to traverse your path of destiny to its end and finally cross the finish line. We all must go this way.
The Value of Righteousness
We often say that a person's heart is upright. What does this mean? When a heart is firmly vertical, we say it is upright. If a tree is lying on the ground, we don't say it is upright. The same is true when we refer to a heart as upright. The expression means that the heart is standing vertically That is why human beings walk upright. An object must be vertical in order to be upright. We must set our hearts in a completely vertical position. Then the body will be horizontal in relation to this. When the vertical and horizontal are set within us, the pulling power of the vertical and the pushing power of the horizontal will be in balance. There will arise centripetal and centrifugal forces. Thus, we need to find ourselves. When we assert ourselves, we should say that God and True Parents are also this way. On this foundation, we can expand our sphere of life through relatives, one clan and one nation.
Doctors quarantine patients who have dangerous communicable diseases. For the same reason, the time is not far off when we will send people who know the Will of God but continue to sin despite this knowledge into isolation near the North Pole or other arctic area. People thrown into such a place might not have a place to sleep or food to eat. They may go through immense suffering until they can genuinely repent.
There is one thing that makes me sad. God gave me responsibility to accomplish His will, so during my lifetime I need to accomplish His will to a level He finds acceptable. Until I have done that, I cannot die. For that reason, when I am in the valley of the shadow of death, God leads me out of danger. Whether I am eating or fasting, whether I am asleep or awake, I am always praying for the world and humankind. My suffering is not for the sake of a particular country or people. My objective is the salvation of the world. I have worked to this day and I am ready to die if necessary. I have sacrificed my life so that this objective might be achieved. You, also, should live and die for the sake of the world. If it is for the sake of world salvation, you must even be prepared to die with your wife, your family, your clan and even your entire people.
Face to Face with Death
Some day in the future, you will die. When you stand face to face with death, you will look back upon your life. You need to think what final words you will leave behind at that moment. On the path of death, your friends will not be with you. Your loving parents will not be there, nor will your loving brothers and sisters. Your spouse and children whom you love so much will not be with you. It is a path that you will take alone.
No one can go down that path twice. Once you have gone, there is no coming back. Once you take that path, you cannot return in all eternity The heart that you have as you walk that path is important. When that moment arrives and you are face to face with death, if you do not possess the hope that can transcend death, that will be the end of you.
In history there have been many people who upheld and established God's will. They did not retreat when they faced death. Instead, they laughed in the face of death and valiantly transcended death. We know well that these people paved our way to Heaven. What kind of person is it who is joyful even when passing over the hill of death, the moment that drives most of us into heartfelt sorrow? This is the kind of person who has heartfelt hope and aspirations for Heaven. For this reason, we must not reproach the world and lament when we face death. Instead, we should feel joy as we stand before heaven with pride in the value of our death.
What happens to us when we die? Up to the moment we die, we belong to ourselves. But as soon as we die, we belong to God. This is because we are born of a fallen lineage. Until our death, we lack the ability to cut our ties with Satan. After death, though, we establish ties with God. There is no resurrection without death. It is impossible to enter into the next period without first passing through the preceding one.
To what kind of death does the Bible refer when it says that those who seek to die will live and those who seek to live will die? (Luke 17:33, John 12:25) This does not mean that we should lose the eternal life given us by Heaven. It means that we should lose the life that is connected to the satanic world, inherited through the fallen lineage. That is why those who seek to die for the sake of God will live. This seems paradoxical. But from the perspective of the fall, this is the only way restoration can come about. This is the standard for discussing the possibility of restoration.
Wisdom and Foolishness
Success or failure in life is not determined over a period of decades. Rather, it is determined in an instant. If you look at the entire course of life, it does not take very long for a baby to be born. Of course, there is a period leading up to the birth, when the fetus is in the womb. Those ten months in the womb are a time of preparation. The birth takes but an instant. The preparation may go well for the entire ten months, but if something goes wrong at the decisive moment of birth, the infant will meet a tragic end.
After living out our life on earth, we come face to face with our moment of fate. We will see our entire life flash before our eyes. The one who can say, "There was truth in my life" and "I am leaving behind something more valuable than my life," is a person who has spent his life in a worthy manner. On the other hand, the person who starts to recall the past and begins to shake his head over things he would rather not remember, is a tragic person. For some people, the more they remember the greater the expression of joy on their face. If all their problems can be buried in the ideal, death will actually be a comfort. The moment of recalling the past will not be filled with fear. If they are leaving something behind, then that past record will not die and its reality will not die. Instead, these things will be made manifest. The people whose past allows them to do this are without a doubt people whom the nation can follow. They are the ones whom the people of the world can follow.
We need to consider whether we can stand alone before God. Truth and goodness begin with a particular individual but they do not end with that individual. Once truth and goodness have begun in a particular person, they must bear fruit in another person. Or, they can begin in another person and bear fruit in me.
If a person spends her life giving to others, then she will have no fear on the path of death. She has given everything and sacrificed herself for others. She has led a life that is close to truth; she has shed tears for others and she has invested her life for others. If a man's aspirations are for others, all the life force coming from his pulse is focused and invested for the sake of others. If this is the case, then this person's past is one of glory.
The path taken by the wise is different from that taken by the foolish. A wise person tries to live in partnership with history, in partnership with the present world and in partnership with the future. A foolish person lives for the self and tries to make the world exist for his or her own sake. There is a global environment characteristic of the spirit world, and within it are nations, clans, families and individuals. An individual cannot enter Heaven without a self-motivating character by which he or she is absolutely indispensable as an individual. The family or clan cannot enter Heaven unless they can say that they possess a self-motivating character that makes them indispensable on the family or clan level.
How to Go to Heaven
Compared with spirit world, Earth is but a speck of dust. The spirit world is an eternal world, transcending time and space. If a spirit person commands, "The person who lived in such and such an age with such and such a heart, please come forward," then that person will appear in an instant. It is a world in which feelings and intuition turn into reality. There are no factories there to produce food. There are no automobile factories. There is nothing like that.
To register yourself in spirit world, you need a certificate based upon your life on earth. How are you going to obtain it? I'm talking about a certificate of life that will let you say: "This is what I became. This is what I did." You cannot just make your own certificate. First, Satan has to write one for you. After you receive that certificate, you have to receive one from Jesus. Finally, you have to receive a certificate from God. You will need these three certificates.
When you go to spirit world, you will find that it is made up of three very large realms. Those who lived for others will go to the highest level. Those who lived for themselves, however, will find themselves on the lowest level. They will find that everyone is opposing them, whereas everyone will welcome those who lived for others.
Once you are in spirit world, your parents and spouse cannot help you. The people in the highest levels are those who lived for the sake of others. In the uppermost tiers are those who traveled throughout the world living for others with a heart that expanded their love for their mother and family With a saintly heart, they are always looking for ways to save the people of the world from evil.
The one who lives for himself goes to Hell, and the one who lives for others goes to Heaven. People separate into these two worlds at death. Thus, we must live for the sake of the whole, for the sake of the greater good. Live for the sake of the world, for the sake of God and for the sake of human liberation. Someday competitions will take place to see who can live for the sake of others to a greater degree. In the heavenly world, the person who has lived for the sake of others will go to the higher position. Thus, you can leap to a higher position by living for the person who is higher than you are. Living for that person is the same act as God bringing forth His own object through His creative act. Thus, that person comes to stand as your object partner of love.
The Value of Living for Others
In the spirit world we live for others, centering on true love. If you encounter a person who has dedicated 100 percent of his life for the sake of others, then you have to say, "Please move past me, go ahead." It doesn't matter how great the United States seems to be. A person who dedicates his life for the people of America to a greater extent than your President does can move past the President and be welcomed.
When a person only cares about his own interests, he is everyone's enemy. It is the same way in spirit world. When a person says he will live for something greater, then he will naturally move past others. One who lives for the sake of the world does not need to worry about living for America, because America is included in the world. All countries are included in the world. The conclusion can only be that true love, by which a person lives for the sake of others, is the only content and direction that everyone can welcome.
When you die, you must take with you three accomplishments. One, that you loved God. Two, that you loved yourself and worked hard to establish your essential self. And three, that you worked hard to expand the love you shared with your spouse and your family to the entire world. This love for humanity and for God will remain forever. It will define your right to ownership in the next world. When you enter spirit world, the number of people you evangelized will determine your right to ownership.
In the spirit world, pride wells up over the extent to which you longed for people with your life. You do not need anything else in the next world. The only thing you need is the record that you loved God more than the world, more than your country, more than your spouse and more than your children. If a wife wants her husband to love her with godly love of a higher order, then she has to say, "Please love God more than you love me, and then love me."
The Family and Spirit World
I often preach about the realm of the heart. The foundation for the realm of the heart is the love of true parents, the love of true brothers and sisters and the love of true children. The world of the heart is one in which we universalize these types of love. In this original world, a person can live by the standard of husband and wife love, but theirs must be a husband and wife love that gives primacy to Heaven and earth and to the cosmos.
So, where do we go in order to establish a foundation to qualify for that world? We must lay this foundation in the physical world. We are not to spend our time here for the sake of all those things valued by this world. We are here to qualify ourselves for the next world.
That is the basis for the principle that we live as families in the spirit world. Why do we need to have children? The vertical love of God and the horizontal love of parents bring descendants into this world. This is a vertical and horizontal mixing of the blood of God and the parents. Thus, people who were unable to have descendants on earth will not be able to harmonize Heaven and earth in the spirit world. They will be unable to keep step with the rhythm of north, south, east and west. A person who has no descendants will have no place to rest or play in the next world.
Religions and Nations in Spirit World
In spirit world, there is no need for religion, much less for denominations. There is no need for entities such as the Presbyterian Church or the Catholic Church. People there are in the realm of life together with God. In that realm are people who loved the world, patriots and loyal subjects, women of virtue, and saints. As far as I am aware, however, there is as yet no one who lived his or her life in the original love of God, centering on the tradition of the realm of the heart.
Whenever you begin a task, you should begin it centering on God. Whether you go to Hell, the middle spirit world, Paradise or the Kingdom of Heaven, is determined by the extent to which you harmonize with this principle. The most precious path on earth is that which endures the greatest amount of suffering and sheds the most tears for the sake of Heaven. That is the path that will bestow the freedom to enter the next world.
In the next world, people of different nationalities cannot live together, but true followers of all religions can live together. The religious sphere is one of longing for one world and believing in one God. Thus people of true piety will be together. The uniqueness of people of faith is in their living their entire life based upon the standard of the spirit world. Religion teaches us how to relate with each other centering on the eternal world, the transcendent world, the dwelling place of the Divine Being-whether we call Him God or by some other name.
God's Call to World Leaders
There is a reason for my speaking to the participants in this gathering about the value of life in relation to issues having to do with life and death. You represent religions that are active throughout the world. I want to stress that it is religious leaders' responsibility to teach about life and death correctly.
Today, the political leaders of the world are seeking to realize peace and prosperity through the United Nations. In my judgement, however, the path to world peace will be incomplete if we build it merely upon the political, economic and military functions of the United Nations. Political, economic and military powers can deal only with that which is external, physical and material. We can reach the internal and spiritual aspects of life only through religious teaching and through the unity and united actions of the world's religions.
I would like to take this opportunity today to supplement the existing United Nations with a structure in which the UN and leaders of the major world religions can work together. I hope that the participants here today, and all the nations of the world, will seriously consider this proposal to establish a structure encompassing the world's religions and the United Nations.
My dear Leaders and Distinguished Guests, I want to again express my appreciation that you have taken time from your busy lives to attend this important meeting. May God bless you and your families. Thank you.
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